Unfortunately, my departure did not go smoothly. My flight was supposed to leave at 10 PM on Friday the 13th of August. I know, I know. I should have seen the friday the thirteenth takeoff date and just known that something bad was going to happen. When I got to the airport, I found out that the flight had been delayed for 12 hours because the guy who was supposed to fly the plane had a family emergency and have to go back home immediately. After several hours in the airport, KLM bussed us all to a hotel for the night with a ticket on a flight that left the following morning to Amsterdam. The guy in Bahrain told us all that he could get us to Amsterdam and the people there would arrange connecting flights. While I'm glad to be on a plane (I'm writing this from my seat) I'm still a little worried about what will happen in Amsterdam. Will I be able to get a flight? Delayed again? Not that Amsterdam is a bad place to be delayed in but like I said, I'm ready to be home and any delay is an inconvenience.
On the plus side, there were only a handful of us that ended up on this flight and they arranged a plane just for us. What that means is I'm hanging out in business class with just two other passengers. Lots of room to stretch my legs. I'm not sure why everyone isn't up here, the coach section is actually fairly full. Maybe I'm a more effective complainer and that's why I got upgraded. Of course if I was really good, I'd be in first class. Maybe I'll make that my goal for the trans-atlantic portion of the flight. I'll let you know how it goes.
Not much in the way of updates for the actual trip. I know that my new iPhone did arrive at my house so I'm looking forward to taking that out of the box and getting it fired up. Chris, by buddy who is staying at my house for a bit was able to get the package out of the FedEx guy's hands. I'm not sure of the whole story but Chris said it was a close call. I'm assuming it has something to do with the fact that a signature was required but I'll get all the details when I get home.
I also looked into getting a new seat for my bike. The stock seat that it came with isn't all that comfortable and it doesn't have a back to it. As far as I can tell, the only seat that fits my bike that has a back is $600 and would cost another couple hundred to have it installed. For that price, I think I'll do without or try to find some other solution when I'm actually on the road.
For those of you who are curious about what Bahrain looks like, check out the video below. It's just a few clips I took while driving around town one day. This was done in the middle of the day during Ramadan so there aren't many people out or many shops open but it should at least give you a decent idea of what the city looks like. Also, it was another chance for me to play around with my video editing app which I think is pretty cool.
That's it for now. I'll let you know how it goes in Amsterdam.
OK, so things in Amsterdam did not go well at all. I had to stay another night, this time in a small hotel that that smelled like sweaty Dutchmen and had a TV that required a 10 Euro payment to use. The following morning I caught a flight to Paris. The original flight was direct to Dulles, but now....Paris. I almost missed my connection in Paris and just barely made it. I didn't get any upgrade for my seat on this flight either. When I asked the KLM people for one they told me that since the flight was on Air France, they couldn't help me but that the Air France people might. The Air France people told me that KLM messed up my flights not Air France so Air France wasn't going to upgrade anything unless I paid for it. Nice, eh?
Anyway, I made it home on Sunday evening, went to work Monday (today) and I'm leaving for tomorrow for the trip. I guess it could have been worse but I'm just anxious to get on the road and forget all about the flights. The plan for tomorrow is to go around D.C., see the family in West Virginia and Ohio and hopefully make it Columbus or maybe Dayton by tomorrow night. I'l let you know how it goes.
Location:MacArthur Dr,Scotland,United States
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